There she is just a-churnin' up the Gulf

Anybody have any clue on what the hell the world has to do to catch a break for a few weeks? I don't know about you, but I'm frankly exhausted by it all and I'm approximately one earthquake/storm/mudslide/volcano/flood away from complete burnout.

Do you think that maybe, just maybe, if we're all nice to each other for the weekend -- you know, really put our hearts, minds and souls into it and spread some love, kindness and good cheer wherever we go, whatever we do, whoever we meet -- we could qualify for some kind of amnesty program?

All takers please report back on your progress on Monday and we'll see what happens.

Dumb Online Game Monday...a day late

I was just so tired last night that I couldn't even think about blogging. I like you people, but I likes my sleep even more.

This week's game is a lot easier than last week's game. It's a form of that old chestnut, the memory game "Concentration," using photos found on Flickr. It's called Memry, and when you click on the link it will ask you to "write a tag." I wasn't bright enough to click on the little blue "?" to figure out what they meant at first so I just pressed "play!" and let them select one for me.

The idea is you enter a keyword, like "flower" or "Denmark" or "Jane" or such, and it searches Flickr for photos that match that tag. You have to turn the photos over, two at a time, matching them into pairs. You can have a 4x4 grid or a 6x6 grid -- I suggest not going with 6x6 because the pictures are a lot harder to see and therefore match. It will count how many turns it takes you to complete each game; my average is 26. If you get sick of it, just click "finish" to skip to the end.

If you find a photo you particularly like or find...intriguing...you can click on it and it will take you to the original picture on Flickr. The matching them up part isn't all that unique, of course, but it's seeing what pictures will come up from the word you enter that makes it different. Some are easy to understand, others not so much. Plus, it underscores how many bad pictures people are willing to put out on the Internet.

Happy matching! (If anyone finds any particularly...intriguing...photos, feel free to leave a link in the comments.)

Wow!

How was that for a jump start?!? Yeah, that's what I thought, too. (I'm surprised that people seem to be having such a hard time with that game. I have a glidepoint instead of a mouse, so I wonder if that's the difference. Anyone doing well with it?)

The thing is, I keep ending up so uninspired each Tuesday by the current "Family Edition" of the Amazing Race that I'm disinclined to post about it and it bogs me down. I will say that TVgasm is doing a bang-up job of putting out some great recap posts about a less-than-stellar show, so I recommend that if you're strugging through this AR season, too, you go check them out instead of here each Wednesday. Don't miss GravityPhil™!

Let's see, what else. April and I went to see The Eagles on their California Tour on Monday, but she was more diligent in writing about it and covered it so well that I had little more to add. The only difference is that I don't dislike "The Boys of Summer" or "Smugglers Blues" as much as she does! And, as I said to someone who asked me about the concert, I was really impressed by the perfect balance they struck between sounding like the songs from the records and improvising and improving on them without interminable, overblown guitar solos and the like.

Aside from all that, the only interesting thing occupying my time is my dear Finn, and I promised that this wouldn't turn into catblogging central. But then, it has been a few weeks, so I guess it's safe. Caption, anyone?

Dumb Online Game Monday

Since I've been next-to-useless when it comes to blogging lately (no real reason, btw, just haven't had much to share), I decided it was time to come up with a new "feature" to jump start things.

We've all been forwarded dumb online games that, even though they're dumb, you just can't stop playing until you either master them or go insane. The golf one I mentioned in a post a while back comes to mind. In that spirit I present Balance the Baguette.

You just need to move your mouse back and forth in order to help Monsieur Boulanger keep his crusty baguette balanced on his pudgy little hand for as long as possible, while avoiding the croissants that are inexplicably dropping from above. (An angry Madame Boulanger wanting her shiftless man to get back to baking? A crazy neighbor complaining about the quality of his wares? Who freaking knows with the French?!?) If the baguette tips at a dangerous angle, Monsieur turns a very unhealthy shade of red to let you know he may drop the precious bread -- or have a brief heart attack. Mon Dieu!

The text is in French once you lose, but you should get the gist that it gives you your time and what your best time has been thus far. "Rejouer" is "Play again." Which I think, oui, you will want to do! My best time is in the low 30s and I'm sure many of you can beat that with one loaf tied behind your back.

Have you gotten a dumb online game you want to share and make everyone else waste time playing at work when they're supposed to be working on their TPS report? Send it to me at my Gmail account (not that one over at the right -- I never remember to check that one), which is moburns [at] Gmail [dot] com, for a future post.

Definition: Real Monday Blues

Being pragmatic when making the picks for your football pool and going against your two favorite teams, having both teams lose, and winning the week in the pool but feeling completely miserable that you guessed right.